The Driesenga Family : We've made it! Update on our journey & first few days!

As we are beginning another new adventure in East Africa, I'm going to do my best to keep this blog updated for those who care to follow along!

To get started, here is a recap of the last few days.

On Wednesday, we said many goodbyes to family and friends and finished up packing the 12 tubs/suitcases we brought here with us. Let me tell you, saying goodbye does NOT get easier. It was interesting to watch our kids though, as this is now the third time we've said these goodbyes. They seem a bit desensitized to it, acting a bit more casual than I sometimes want them to or think they should. For four years, however, they've had to say these goodbyes not only to family and friends in the US, but also to multiple friends, multiple times per year in Africa. In fact, each year Isaac would become close to a few boys in his class, and inevitably those were the friends who left at the end of the year. So, I suppose I get why they aren't as tearful as their mama when we give those tight last hugs that I feel like has to last years - this is a regular part of their normal lives in a way it never was for me as a child. In a way, though they might not be able to articulate it, they're protecting their hearts. I suppose they also have now understood that while those relationships may change over time and distance, they are still there. The wonders of technology have certainly helped us keep in touch, so there is an awareness that we WILL see each other again...just maybe through a computer screen.

Ready to head to Chicago!

Thursday we loaded our van and the van of some friends and drove to Chicago. We had a bit of time to catch up with our friends David & Jenny (and kids), buy guitar strings that I had forgotten to buy earlier, and made it to the airport around 7pm. Checking in and getting through security went smoothly and we made it to our gate with plenty of time.

on the way to the airport in Chicago

checking in

Carry on luggage

Our friends David & Jenny who brought us to the airport in this sweet van!

Our long flight to Istanbul went quickly, as we travelled overnight and we all slept quite a bit. We had a few hours in the Istanbul airport (enough time for a quick last Starbucks!) and then boarded for Kigali. The process in Rwanda to obtain a visa and go through passport control was so quick and easy and the people were extremely friendly and pleasant. It helped that the kids and I were here only 2 months ago, so it was very familiar to all of us. We are entering on a tourist/visitor visa and will make work over the next few days to get our paperwork in for our resident visas. We are grateful for the help the school gives us in this! Please pray we have all the correct documents needed.

We were picked up around 2:00am by David, a KICS employee who has coordinated our housing for us. He brought us and all our things home. The kids and I had a chance to see the house in June, but Marc had not, so the kids were very excited to show him around. We feel so blessed by this house and the way it's been furnished! We walked and already waiting for us was cereal, coffee, bread, bananas, PB & J, tea, milk, yogurt and juice - it was so nice to not have to worry about what we'd do for food the next morning! We stayed up for a few hours unpacking and finally laid down to sleep about 4am.

Made it to Kigali!

The kids outside our new home! This was in June when we were able to visit.
Our yard is not so green and lush looking now! :)

Girls bunk

Marc woke up around 9am and headed out with the Spiritual Life Coordinator at KICS to get our SIM cards for our phones set up. I got up around 10am and the kids slept a few more hours. We spend the day unpacking and trying to settle as much as possible. The director and his family stopped by to welcome us and all our kids immediately ran off to play as we chatted. At 4:45pm we walked the 3 minutes to school and met up with a lot of other new teaching staff and headed to the directors house for dinner. It was great meeting many new families, couples and singles! It was our 12th wedding anniversary, which our director knew, so they presented us with a cake after dinner. It was really sweet and thoughtful! We got home, got the kids in bed and kept unpacking.

This morning we were up just after 8am and got ready for church. We went to one of the few English services in Kigali with the director and his family. There are several other options to check out, and we'll likely try them all before deciding where a good fit is for us. There is a church right across the street from school that we can walk to in about 4 minutes, and that will likely be where we land until we have the funds for a car.

The kids lead most of the service this morning at Christian Life Assembly.

Kids room

After church we went to Java house for lunch, then I met with a woman and a few potential houseworker while Marc went to the store to buy fans and a few outlet adaptors. We finally made it home around 4pm and did a bit more unpacking.

The school provided a shower curtain, but from my visit in June I knew it was plain and pink.
Found this one at a bargain store in Atlanta and brought it along to try
and personalize the bits of our home that we can.

Isaac is in the single bed, Hope is on the top bunk &
Geneva on the bottom bunk

This week will be full as Monday and Tuesday will be at school 8am - 4pm and Wednesday - Friday we will be away at a staff retreat. We love our house, but making it a 'home' is going to take some time as we don't have much time these two weeks before school begins. I'll try to post some pictures of the house this week!

Feel free to ask questions that we can answer in future blogs!